Women Entrepreneurs in Maldives

Executive Summary:

It is traditional perception that if women will run business, that business will not grow. The women entrepreneurs are carrying on their businesses for many years but their businesses are not visible. But today, this traditional thinking has to be changed. People started accepting their work. The women entrepreneurs are of much importance for the national economy, and ignoring their work will be an unfair. They make a half our total population and without upgrading their entrepreneurship will not lead to economic growth.

The purpose of our research study is to explore on the area that why the women entrepreneurs are unable to setup their own businesses, and to support the current status of women entrepreneurs by inquiring about the problems which are currently being faced by the women entrepreneurs. The identification of the problem will be helping hand for us to develop strategies for the growth of private businesses of the women entrepreneurs. The growth of the women entrepreneurs will upgrade the social status of the women in the society and the overall morale of the women will also promote, eventually it will help in boosting of our national economy.

Introduction

Women entrepreneurs play significant role in the todays entrepreneurial economy. According to NaturalNews (2008) women entrepreneurs are increasing at an extraordinary rate, continuing to enter fields traditionally dominated by men. Women owned firms now account for nearly 40 percent of U.S. businesses. However this percentage is very low in some regions. In some developing countries, women still represent a very small minority of their entrepreneurial market. Womens

entrepreneurship is highly dependent on various factors i.e social, cultural, traditional and religious factors. In some societies, womens do not have much authority. They have no right to get education, start a business or own a land. Without doubt, discrimination against women exists in every society both developed and developing country. However, the level of this discrimination vary depend on the country or society.

Women in the Maldives said to be very active and dedicated in their work. From the earlier days to till now, they have played important role in their family and family business. Some of the occupations in the Maldives are considered as mens profession. However, there are no industries where female workers not get involved. Fisheries, agriculture, tourism and even in education they contributed significant amount of help. There is old saying Every successful men, behind there is a woman. If this is the case, why cant woman be an entrepreneur?

History

The Maldives also has long history of discrimination against women. Most of this discrimination involves restriction on education; controls over their life such arrange marriage. Some people still believe that men are superior than women. Although man had more privileges than a woman, it did not restrict them from doing private work. They had full control of their work.

Earlier days we have very few entrepreneurs and most of them were family owned micro entrepreneurs. Basically most female workers, works for themselves or their family. For example, in case if husband is a fisherman, wife happened to be the one who make dried fish or rihaakuru out of it. Similarly, some women business like making Coir-ropes only involves women. They do not work for salary or wages and they have their own tools. To get work done she works at her own place which may be her own home, buys her own raw material. They are independent in deciding how to produce and whom to sell.

Until late 90s, very few women entrepreneurs found in the Maldives especially in modern industry like tourism and mercantile businesses. Some traditional beliefs and lack of demand and supply restrict them from entering such a market.

Problems and Challenges.

Earlier days, women are handicapped in the society. They did not have much rights, therefore they face many challenges, as the do not enjoy the same opportunities as men. Women-owned firms continue to face challenges, including access to capital, access to markets and access to training and technical assistance. Here are some of the barriers that limit women being entrepreneurs.

Barriers to Women Entrepreneurship

Source: http://www.scribd.com/doc/13735212/Women-Entrepreneurs

Education The education has been identified as the main problem and has direct impact on the women entrepreneurship. This problem is also linked to cultural believe. Some parents believe that a woman does not require education. Restrictions on women were more severe in the early days.

Skill Skill is something that each entrepreneur should have. Some skills can be learned through educational training. Today some women are lacking in skills and the things they produce Entrepreneurial and marketing skills something any one can learn through education system. In addition, technical training in related filed is important as it helps to improve existing skills. For example traditional skills such sewing can be improved by using latest technology and machines. Until today, women have limited access to technical education and training, and most technical jobs often have a significant male dominance.

Religious Restriction The religious restriction exist at some level in Maldivian society and it keep the women restricted from operating in the open market. Most of these believe are come from tradition beliefs. This was the main reason why women are not able contact with the market; instead women get help from the family for contracts with the market.

Cultural Restriction Like the religious restriction, cultural restriction also exists and keeps the women restricted from entering specific market. They have limited mobility, which create problems toward marketing, transportation & selling of goods. In Maldivian tradition, some jobs are specified as Mens Jobs. Entering such a market is difficult for a woman as some people think women is weak. However it has proved that women can dominate in any market. As a result, today many companies use female for their marketing and boost their sales ie Sales-girls concept.

Finance Women have to use personal savings to finance the establishment and growth of their enterprises. Finance is the backbone of the growth of any business and without this, the skills will go waste. Women are more like to encounter financial problem as they have difficulty in raising capital or obtaining loans from the bank other financial institution.

Modern days.

The women are carrying on their businesses from many years but their businesses are not showing visible in the market for long time. But today things have changed; we see significant growth of women entrepreneur in the Maldivian. If the current speed of growth in women entrepreneur is maintained, then women entrepreneur will reach same level as men at the end of the decade.

In last decade has seen a number of initiatives toward improving women entrepreneurship in Maldives. The traditional thinking has changed and as a result, women also started getting access to education, employment, training opportunities and social services. Today we have many opportunities available for women to choose entrepreneurial. Some entrepreneurs are already started dominated in some industries. Here I will highlight some industry where women entrepreneur dominated in the market.

Beauty Saloons. Beauty saloons or beauty shops are womens venture for many countries. Likewise, in Maldives we see many women entrepreneur working in this industry. There are many reasons for that. As I mention earlier, womens entrepreneurship is dependent on demand and supply side. Demand for beauty shops have increase over the years, which created opportunity to many women entrepreneur. As a result many people encourage to get training in that field. Sheri and Dhonkana are well known company operated in Maldives saloon industry. They have added new value to the industry by providing variety of services including.

Food and Catering Most of women entrepreneurs are still home based worker. Inflow of the rural migrants to the Male, which caused shortage of job opportunities in Male for both migrants and residents. However, this creates new opportunities for women entrepreneurs to enter new business. Catering and Restaurant business is one industry where home-based women entrepreneur can easily take over. Today we have seen many women entrepreneur, working in this industry at different scale. There high demand for Wedding cake and catering.

Juways Caf and Restaurant is one of the famous restaurants in Maldives. It is also first women owned restaurant in Maldives. Mrs Juwariyaa is not only the owners of the restaurant but also she has written many books related to cooking. She also appeared in many TV programs. Today Juways (2009) offer wide range of services including catering parties, corporate functions and delivery service. For the marketing she has recently partner with Dhi FM program called Mid Day Break at Juway's. This indicates how well women can perform in the open and competitive market.

Sewing and Garments Sewing and garment business is another area where women workers have dominated. Taking a look at their design and quality, we can how creative they in their field. Today some women have shown their ability by taking their business into next level. Some women own their own factory or even some offers short-term courses to teach their skills to others.

Opportunities.

Talking about opportunities, today woman has more opportunities than a man. In the sense, that the constitution of Maldives, guaranteed womens right to enter into any lawful trade or business, the government other financial institutions offer vast incentive to improve entrepreneurial situation in Maldives. Some of these incentives include loans, training and equipments etc.

Recently government started giving loan to develop Small Medium Enterprise (SME). In this SME loan government give priority to women. In addition to this Maldives chamber of commerce gave interest free loans to two women, which indicates the opportunity for women who want start business.

Education and training is the biggest challenges faced by the women entrepreneurs. However this barrier is now removed. Women can also enjoy the education opportunities same as men including higher education opportunities. Government and private institution offer special training programs specifically targeting to women.

As I mentioned earlier, there are some industries, where less numbers of women operated. For such a market there is high chances for the women to succeed. In addition to this there are some communities and association to develop and support women entrepreneurs in Maldives. The main purpose of these communities is to identify the problem and challenges faced by women businesses and develops strategies to solve those issues.

Recommended strategies to improve the situation Beside the opportunities, still there are much works need to be done to bring women entrepreneurs as same levels as men. Majorities of women in Maldives still do not have enough knowledge to start their own entrepreneurial business. Therefore I recommend following strategies in order to improve the entrepreneurial situation in Maldives.

y y y y y y y

Educate and train the women entrepreneurs Help then in setting up of home based businesses Make easy finance available (incentives) Develop special schemes for women entrepreneurs Develop gender sensitivity Examine the processes of gender inequality Acquire skills of identification of potential women entrepreneurs

Conclusion This study has revealed that women entrepreneur earlier and current situation of Maldives. This study also covers the barriers to women entrepreneurship and how to overcome the problem be. Although the women entrepreneurs situation has improved still there are some levels of discrimination exist. Therefore it is recommended to

government and private institutions provide assistance in development of women entrepreneurs.

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juways.com(2009). Juways Caf and Restaurant. Retrieved November 22, 2009 from World Wide Web; http://www.juways.com/

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